Oh dear, I fear the Time magazine cover story on Britain's "unhappy, unloved and out of control" kids may be part of a wider Brit-bashing trend.
In the current issue of the libertarian journal Reason, Michael C Moynihan is less than impressed with the behaviour of British tourists:
"Last December, Ricky Hatton, a stout-chugging, ruddy-faced British boxer, was laid out on a Las Vegas canvas by the American welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather. The crowd of Union Jack–bedecked fans —“drunken dullards” and “boors,” according to The Daily Telegraph’s horrified sports correspondent—became so unruly that for the first time in its history, the MGM Grand casino shut down its archipelago of bars. Hatton’s troglodyte supporters achieved what was long considered impossible: They managed to class-down Vegas."
Moynihan calls on Americans to correct their "self-image as lesser Brits", noting that "Europeans, who ranked the English as the “world’s worst tourists” in a recent Expedia poll, have long ago disabused themselves of such stereotypes."
There are some who will see this sort of article as an insult. I think we should regard it as a wake-up call.